Rene Santaella de Estrella Media
Estrella Media FAST business started in January 2021 and currently, the company has four FAST Channels:
EstrellaTV – This is the flagship channel connecting all their channels, featuring live programming, entertainment, reality competitions, daily news, comedy, talk shows, and music events.
Estrella News – This is the first-ever digital Spanish-language 24/7 news channel, keeping the audience informed and up-to-date on US, Latin America, and worldwide breaking news, entertainment, sports, and topics that matter most to the Hispanic community.
Estrella Games – A Spanish-language 24/7 game show channel for family-friendly fun and non-stop entertainment.
Cine EstrellaTV – Brings Mexican Cinema to the FAST screen through a curated selection of movies. From award-winning classics to the latest blockbusters, the channel has something for everyone.
“Our performance has been fun to watch over the past two years. We are streaming nearly 280 million minutes per month, reaching 10 million video viewers, and pacing to grow +22% over the prior year. Our FAST business started in January 2021, and a big part of our success is strong relationships with our partners,” said René Santaella, Chief Digital & Streaming Officer at Estrella Media, credited for launching the streaming and AVOD platforms of the company and leading the digital transformation of Estrella Media’s content and distribution strategy, operations, and new revenue initiatives.
Under Santaella’s guidance, Estrella Media has quickly become a leader in multi-platform, Spanish-language, ad-supported content distribution, streaming over one billion minutes monthly across FAST, AVOD, social, and audio platforms.
Santaella pointed out that for Estrella Media, FAST represents the fastest-growing video platform for entertaining and informing fans and audiences at scale. “It is part of our multi-platform video solution for advertisers with linear TV, AVOD, and YouTube. It’s on TV. It’s binge-friendly, and most importantly, it’s free. At Estrella Media, we take our unique studio content – our best – and make it available everywhere for free.”
He mentioned they are exploring more opportunities on FAST, but now, they are focused on ensuring their viewers and partners the best product and viewership experience possible. He added that all four channels FAST of Estrella Media are available on LG Channels and Tubi, and soon they will launch EstrellaTV on Freevee.
“We treat FAST like a TV experience by curating for primetime and on-demand weekend binge behaviors. We know there might be periods when new viewers might try the channel after the Holidays on their new device, and we also know they might do appointment viewing with recent seasons of our studio content. We also know they might lean back, escape, and take a break for 20 minutes. We are always digging into data, testing, and learning, and as a result, we have taken a leadership position in the space, and our audiences love what we are doing,” he explained.
“We are moving to an entirely cloud-based world for streaming TV with our tech partner, Amagi. Cloud-based operations make it more efficient to spin up, operate, monetize, and distribute channels. Everyone needs to understand that it is still really early regarding FAST. There will be more innovation in FAST with the viewership and advertising experiences over the next two years,” Santaella said regarding FAST’s main advantage.
René Santaella Estrella Media’s EVP, Digital & Streaming Media
